Summer time sadness

dude.

Overview of some topics when it comes to drawing characters who are burn survivors.

DISCLAIMER. Please keep in mind that this is an introductory overview for drawing some burn scars and has a lot of generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. I'm calling this introductory because I hope to get people to actually do their own research before drawing disabled & visibly different characters rather than just making stuff up. Think of it as a starting point and take it with a grain of salt (especially if you have a very different art style from mine).

Talking about research and learning... don't make your burn survivor characters evil. Burn survivors are normal people and don't deserve to be constantly portrayed in such a way.

A good thing to know is that generally, the darker your skin is, the worse your scarring will be. I don't know why that is, but i was told by several doctors that i'm lucky i'm so white, and also seen it on other burnt people- dark skin scar harder. FYI.

Scars take time to set! It takes somewhere betweem 1-4 years for them to heal, and until then, they can DRASTICALLY change shapes(i remember in the early months, my face would completely change in a week. Fun times for an insecure teenager). That's the time when compression garments come into play, and also the time the scars DO have the streotypical pink coloration(not fucking RED. Instead, it'll be a similar color to your blush). The most common time for this to end is 2 years. After the scars calm down, they pretty much set, and get a color that's close to your natural complection, the colors you see in the tutorial.*

*so if the scars are pink, your character should have a compression garment on them! Zuko was NOT listening to his doctors, let me tell you

Even when the scars are constant, there are STILL changes in colors. My scars get super white when I overtax myself physically- instead of going red in the face, I just loose all color. My hands regularly go purplish in the winter, like they loose circulation(they don't. But the color looks like that). Other weather conditions also come into consideration.

Overview of some topics when it comes to drawing characters who are burn survivors.

DISCLAIMER. Please keep in mind that this is an introductory overview for drawing some burn scars and has a lot of generalizations in it, so not every “X is Z” statement will be true for Actual People. I'm calling this introductory because I hope to get people to actually do their own research before drawing disabled & visibly different characters rather than just making stuff up. Think of it as a starting point and take it with a grain of salt (especially if you have a very different art style from mine).

Talking about research and learning... don't make your burn survivor characters evil. Burn survivors are normal people and don't deserve to be constantly portrayed in such a way.

A good thing to know is that generally, the darker your skin is, the worse your scarring will be. I don't know why that is, but i was told by several doctors that i'm lucky i'm so white, and also seen it on other burnt people- dark skin scar harder. FYI.

Scars take time to set! It takes somewhere betweem 1-4 years for them to heal, and until then, they can DRASTICALLY change shapes(i remember in the early months, my face would completely change in a week. Fun times for an insecure teenager). That's the time when compression garments come into play, and also the time the scars DO have the streotypical pink coloration(not fucking RED. Instead, it'll be a similar color to your blush). The most common time for this to end is 2 years. After the scars calm down, they pretty much set, and get a color that's close to your natural complection, the colors you see in the tutorial.*

*so if the scars are pink, your character should have a compression garment on them! Zuko was NOT listening to his doctors, let me tell you

Even when the scars are constant, there are STILL changes in colors. My scars get super white when I overtax myself physically- instead of going red in the face, I just loose all color. My hands regularly go purplish in the winter, like they loose circulation(they don't. But the color looks like that). Other weather conditions also come into consideration.

So I look up a pretty prominent Star Wars guild and message one of their council and ask them to poll the same question and get back to me in a week. They do, and naturally the fuckin geeks said "Death Star".

Bluesky really seemed to like these... for some reason...

Well, technically it's not new : it's a nurse shark. What's new, however, is that it's the first xanthic (imagine albinism but in yellow) nurse shark ever found !! Not only it's not common AT ALL to find fishes with xanthism (it's the first cartilagenous fish ever recorded with this type of genetic "anomally"), but if it's there and still existing as an adult, it means the species is chill-ish with other predators (it probably would have been eaten by then). Its eyes are white so it can also be a form of albinism, in addition to xanthism !!!!!

And most of all : ITS SO CUTE !! AND IT'S SUCH A COOL FIND !!

Please if a marine biologist or someone with more info can interact with this post to feed me some more info or correct me on wrong infos i'e given I'd love it !

Anyway I was bitching about how hard it is to come up with feasible planets in Star Wars because sometimes you need a new planet from scratch and sometimes you need to know more about a planet than the 'has jungles, is probably a moon technically' than Wookieepedia will give you, and they're like 'oh yeah I can do something about that'.

So they've written (in Matlab but they swear it will run as a .exe as well and I may be conscripted to embed it as a web tool at some point) a star system generator.

You input what you know about the planet (ecosystem, population, sun colour, does it have liquid water, does it have a moon or moons, is it a moon or moons, temperature averages, atmosphere, you get me) and it will give you the... everything else about the star system, in obedience to real-universe physics. And if you input nothing you get a randomly generated star system.

And I’m like oh I know people who will be into this with a vengeance, and they're not on Tumblr, so this is me seeing who exactly would be keen on, and I cannot stress this enough, a real-physics comprehensive star system generator.

Flat Characters - Consist of only a few features (usually based on clichés). They’re generally static characters meant to serve the story.

Round Characters - Have depth. They have weaknesses, strengths, flaws, fears, tastes, and dreams. They are well characterized in order to seem real. They're dynamic and change over time. They feel affected by the story’s events because they suffer their consequences and learn from them which makes them more realistic and believable.

The use of flat characters

Flat characters are often used in TV comedies (30-minute sitcoms with canned laughter) because comedic stories usually focus on the anecdote and the joke.

Thanks to their commonplace situations and characters, sitcoms are able to transmit a sense of familiarity to the spectator.

Flat characters also have a supporting role in stories with round main characters in order to achieve one of these effects:

Fast recognition: You need your readers/audience to easily recognize the type of characters you are presenting.

Contrast: Flat and/or static characters can highlight the internal or external evolution of round characters.

When to avoid flat characters

Unless you’re specifically looking for one of the previous effects listed for flat characters, it’s best that your characters (especially the protagonists) are round in order for your readers to identify with them.

Creating round and deep characters

Consider the following:

1. Internal Changes

Do your characters undergo any internal changes throughout the story?

Think about their situation at the beginning of the story.

Is it the same as it is at the end? It shouldn’t be.

They can be worse or better, but the story’s events should have affected them in some way.

2. External Changes

Do the external circumstances surrounding your characters change throughout the story?

Just as their personalities suffer variations, their external conditions should as well.

For example, one of your characters could be a farmer at the beginning of the story and then become a warrior by the end.

3. Goals

What do your characters want?

They should have a conscious desire – something that moves them into action.

4. Wishes

What do your characters need?

Regardless of what they think they want, there’s something they need at an unconscious level – something different from what they consciously desire.

That contradiction will bring depth to your fictional heroes.

5. Achievements

What do your characters attain?

Do they achieve any of their goals?

How does that affect them?

If you have the answer to the last question, you’ll have a clearer idea of how the story’s events have changed their way of facing life.

For instance, if they achieve what they wanted at the beginning of the tale but that’s not what they really need, they can learn from their mistakes and try to correct them.

However, they might also give into frustration.

6. Weaknesses

What are their weaknesses?

Everybody makes mistakes and has fears and flaws, so if you want your characters to be more believable, they’d better have weak points and see themselves in need of facing them if possible.

Your characters overcoming these weaknesses or not depends on the story you want to tell and on the type of evolution you want them to experience.

Some overcome them and progress while others don’t and fail. The contrast between them is what makes the story more believable.

7. Strengths

What are their strengths?

Apart from weaknesses, your characters can have strong points they may or may not know about.

Sometimes, they discover them and learn how to make the most of them.

Other times, they do not know, and it leads them to failure.

You, as a writer, should be clear about those strengths and so should your readers be in order to better understand your characters.

8. Conflicts

What’s your characters’ inner conflicts?

Once you’ve answered the previous seven areas of question, you’ll find this one easier to answer.

Every good character must deal with an inner conflict throughout the story such as a mental debate between what they need and what they want or a moral struggle between what they’re trying to attain and what they consider correct.

This type of dilemma makes your characters interesting, and their experiences can turn into life lessons for your readers.